As the Florida State baseball team kept pounding Sam Houston State pitchers inning after inning on Sunday night, I had to come to grips with what I was seeing.

The Seminoles – these Seminoles – were going to Omaha.

A month ago if you had told me this was going to happen I would’ve assumed you were drunk, sleepwalking or both. And yet, after Sunday night’s 19-0 win that represented the largest margin of victory in NCAA Super Regional history, they are indeed heading to Nebraska for the 22nd time.

And I can promise you, none of the previous 21 were as unexpected as this one in the program’s storied history.

Yet for the first three months in 2017, second-guessing eyes were on FSU. The Seminoles weren’t winning their normal share of games, grinding out just a 33-20 record heading into the final series of the year at Louisville.

Not only were we certain they weren’t going to host a regional, but we weren’t 100 percent sure they’d even make the postseason.

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Brayden Sands, 10, (from right) Owen Tomlinson, 9, and Braxton Sands, 8, came up from the Tampa area to watch the super regionals at Dick Howser Stadium. Here they wait during Sunday's rain delay for players to sign their baseballs.
Hali Tauxe/Democrat

Sam Houston players return to their dugout as grounds crews cover the field at Dick Howser Stadium just after 5:00 on Sunday as rain delays push back the second game of the Tallahassee super regional between Florida State and Sam Houston State that was originally scheduled for noon.
Hali Tauxe/Democrat

Grounds crews cover the field at Dick Howser Stadium just after 5:00 on Sunday as rain delays push back the second game of the Tallahassee super regional between Florida State and Sam Houston State that was originally scheduled for noon.
Hali Tauxe/Democrat

Grounds crews cover the field at Dick Howser Stadium just after 5:00 on Sunday as rain delays push back the second game of the Tallahassee super regional between Florida State and Sam Houston State that was originally scheduled for noon.
Hali Tauxe/Democrat

Florida State's Cal Raleigh (left) and Quincy Nieporte celebrate after scoring two runs for the Noles in their second game with Sam Houston State in the Tallahassee super regional at Dick Howser Stadium Monday evening.
Hali Tauxe/Democrat

Florida State's Quincy Nieporte celebrates hitting a three-run homer in the top of the second inning of FSU's second game with Sam Houston State in the Tallahassee super regional at Dick Howser Stadium Monday evening.
Hali Tauxe/Democrat

“I never thought we wouldn’t get to Omaha,” said FSU shortstop Taylor Walls, who banged two home runs and reached base in all seven of his plate appearances on Sunday. “I always had confidence.”

Still, this is about as remarkable a turnaround I can ever remember seeing so late in a year.

We knew Florida State had the talent. The offense is loaded with future pros. The staff has a true ace in Tyler Holton and a reliable — if not dominant — closer in Drew Carlton. But because of injuries, poor luck and poor play the Seminoles had 20 losses with one weekend left in the regular season.

And when that kind of disappointing season happens to a team that came in with such high expectations, you might expect them to just play out the string and be done with it. Maybe write off the year as “it just wasn’t meant to be” and start thinking about the draft, the Cape Cod League, the political unrest in Venezuela — you know, the typical stuff college baseball players think about.

But not this team.

Not this program.

Just when you think Mike Martin is finally having a mediocre season, the kind that hit every program occasionally, he’s going back to Omaha instead.

He’s been there 15 times before. I’m willing to bet none of those previous trips were as special as this one.

Not only because he knows this could be his last chance on the sport’s biggest stage – I guarantee you he’s going to try his best to savor every minute of his time in Omaha – but because of the resolve his Florida State program showed this season.

He gives all the credit to the players. Always.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of a group of guys,” Martin said.

“But they kept believing in each other.”

And let’s be honest – they’ve been really, really good the last three weeks. Including, of course, Sunday night when they absolutely blitzed a solid Sam Houston State team by a million runs to win the Super Regional.

But this season has been a great example of what makes FSU baseball so special. Because what Martin values more than anything, what he relishes and appreciates the most, is the winning culture that has permeated his program for four decades now.

That’s the reason he’s taking a team to Omaha 37 years after he took his first. Think about that. Think about that longevity. Think about how hard it is to maintain that kind of success. It’s almost impossible.

Yet Mike Martin has built a program that just doesn’t accept mediocrity.

Even when it looks like there’s no other choice, like for many days in 2017, the Florida State baseball team finds a way to win games.

I genuinely can’t believe it. It’s what I spent the better part of four hours (after the longest weather delay in the history of weather and delays) on Sunday night contemplating.

Just how did this happen? I have no idea. I’m not smart enough to figure that one out.

But I do know this: If these Seminoles keep playing this carefree, this loose and this well — I might be writing another column in a couple of weeks about something else I’m struggling to come to grips with.